Dr. Sanjay Krishna joins ECE team

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The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) welcomed its newest faculty member in January, the first in support of The Ohio State University’s ongoing Discovery Themes Initiative.

Dr. Sanjay Krishna joined ECE as professor and George R. Smith Chair in Engineering, assisting Ohio State’s Materials and Manufacturing for Sustainability (M&MS) Discovery Theme led by professor Steven Ringel.

The M&MS Discovery Theme is an effort at Ohio State to create pre-eminence in materials and technologies for sustainability, focusing on innovation and industry deployment. 

Krishna is a world leading researcher and innovator in the field of narrow bandgap semiconductors applied to infrared imaging sensors and related technologies.

Watch a video of him explaining his new role at Ohio State.

Krishna comes to Ohio State after 15 years at the University of New Mexico (UNM), where he served as the Microelectronics Endowed Chair and Regents Professor and the Director of the Center for High Technology Materials. He is a Fellow of IEEE, OSA and SPIE, and is the recipient of the NCMR-DIA Chief Scientist Award for Excellence.

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Sanjay Krishna

Krishna’s research is focused on antimony-based compound semiconductors, providing a new thrust to the highly-regarded semiconductor epitaxy and device development cluster that dovetails with the goal of M&MS to create information technologies with vastly lower power consumption and improved functionality.

He was recently awarded a potential $3 million grant from the Office of Naval Research to develop next-generation infrared laser technologies. Read more about the award.

Krishna’s innovation activities include a co-founding role in SK Infrared, LLC, a company developing portable infrared imaging systems for defense and commercial applications, health and wellness applications, as well as environmental, manufacturing metrology and automation.

“What attracted me to Ohio State is that we have a lot of critical mass of faculty who are really good,” he said. “Ringel has done pioneering work in solar cells and III-V materials.”

He also listed working with professors Siddharth Rajan, Roberto Myers, Len Brillson, Ron Reano, Tyler Grassman and Dan Gauthier as similar motivating factors.

“There is so much expertise here,” Krishna said. “There is definitely a lot of growth opportunities at Ohio State. I fit in very well.”

Krishna said curiosity as a child originally led him toward engineering and physics.

“I was always very curious. I didn’t really think of myself as an engineer. But more like an applied physicist. I wanted to do something that would have a lasting impact,” he said. “In the next 30 years of my career, I want to make a difference, in terms of making a product and changing the world in some small way.”

Krishna has already assembled his team of students and faculty to assist this goal, cherry picking some of the best and brightest he taught while at the UNM.

The Team


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Gustavo Vieira, a professor from Brazil, recently joined as visiting faculty – adding past experience with developing infrared detectors. He will focus on building focal plane arrays and helping to advance the process of creating the detectors.


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Teressa Specht earned her MS degree in July at UNM under Krishna’s guidance. Coming to Ohio State to join his team was an easy decision for her.

“I’ve always been a big Ohio State fan. My dad is originally from Columbus, and I grew up as a Buckeye. I’ve gone to football games so I know the culture,” Specht said.

She brings previous industry experience with Ball Aerospace.


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Vinita Dahiya is originally from India, bringing her experience in engineering physics and creating optical fibers. She worked in photonics and semiconductors as part of Krishna’s team at UNM. She transferred to Ohio State and hopes to work on commercialization and developing her epitaxial growth skills.


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SeungHyun Lee originally comes from South Korea and served under Krishna at UNM doing characterization. He will work toward developing new infrared detectors, something new for him.

“I was always very curious about how to grow the samples,” he said.

 


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Alireza Kazemi previously worked with Krishna at UNM where he earned his PhD in materials science and optical imaging. He is switching to an entirely new field of study at Ohio State and is a post-doctoral fellow in the group.

“The challenge in the field of infrared cameras is that the price is really high because of the fabrication process,” he said. “We have proposed a new structure… the idea is to make the fabrication less expensive. It would be quite an improvement to get high performance low cost infrared imagers. It will open up new markets for this technology.”

Krishna said each person on the team is focused on their own special projects.

“The main thing is that each of us enjoy the journey, as that is the most important aspect of learning and discovery. The destination will take care of itself, ” he said.